Update on Marshall

So I am not so sure posting this on my blog was such a good idea. I got tons of replys and comments of support all day long that have kept me bawling! Thank you thank you thank you! We feel so very loved. We just got home from a long day at Primary Children's and the diagnosis isn't absolute and definite, but the neurologist is very confident. Sydenham's Chorea is what she called it. She said she sees this very commonly. I will try to explain this in normal people terms as I understand it because alot of it seems confusing and over my head! (which isn't hard to do!)

At some point, Marshall got the strep bacteria in his system (which we didn't know about and we didn't treat). His body was trying to fight this bacteria and overreacted and kept fighting. The result is this loss of fine motor skills and jerky muscle motions. He had an Echo of his heart done today to make sure with this strep he didn't have rheumatic fever that affects the heart. He doesn't have any heart damage - which is good, but would have been a more definitive diagnosis if they did see heart damage. He also had a blood test that we will get the results tomorrow. Soooo, he has to take some steriods for a few weeks which won't necessarily make Marshall the same old Marshall. Time to work it out of his system - maybe a couple months. The doctor thinks he is at the peak and on the way down.

My boss has a sign in his office that I read every week when I go to work and never think twice about what it says - until today. It says, "Worry is the worst use of your imagination." As you can imagine we have been worrying about the worst case scenerio. (We do still have an MRI scheduled to rule that out). I am sure all my support group felt the same. I feel very calm about the diagnosis and we just need to work through it and know that he will be okay.